Environmental health is a public and governmental priority. Chemicals are an essential component of the high standard of living we enjoy. The challenge to environmental health scientists, including toxicologists, is to ensure that we are not endangering our health or the environment with the products and by-products of modem and comfortable living. In this respect, molecular toxicology has become an increasingly important focus of the academic, industrial and regulatory arena. Tools ranging from transgenic technologies to reporter gene assays in single cells are providing exciting opportunities for studying the effects of chemicals at their molecular targets, and/or understanding the regulation and mechanisms of these interactions. In addition, with the advent of gene chip technology the ability to determine the response of thousands of genes to a chemical-induced stress is now not only possible, but routine. This R13 application requests financial support for a symposium, titled "Chemical Modulation of Gene Expression and the Stress Response" that was prepared under the auspices of the Division of Chemical Toxicology, a section of the American Chemical Society (ACS). This symposium is designed not only to assess the recent work in this area of research, but also to assess future directions at the intersections of chemistry and biology in cell signaling/gene expression research. The selection of symposium speakers was dictated by the strategy of having international experts discuss differing, but complementary aspects of the chemical-induced stress response. Thus, Prof. Orrenius will focus his talk on the mitochondrion, and its pivotal role in chemical-induced apoptosis. Dr. Stevens will discuss his recent findings on the nature of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) mediated response to chemical stress. Dr. Pietenpol, by virtue of her expertise in the p53-dependent stress response pathway, will discuss the nature of the DNA-damage stress response, thereby completing our sojourn through selected locales that participate in the cellular response to chemical-induced stress. Finally, Dr. MacCleod will provide a more global view of the cellular stress response by discussing changes in global gene expression in response to carcinogen-induced stress. Funds are requested to support the travel and accommodation expenses of three invited speakers (Orrenius, Pietenpol, and Stevens) and four graduate student/post-doctoral fellows. Funds for one speaker (MacLeod) and the Chair (Monks) have been secured elsewhere.